Schools of Education Are Urged To Promote Global Awareness

Washington--The educators who prepare people for teaching may be at
fault for the lack of interest students are showing in international
affairs and foreign languages, according to speakers gathered here
recently to discuss international education.

John Carpenter, dean of the college of education at Florida
International University, said educators at colleges and universities
could do more to generate student interest in the cultural affairs of
other nations.

Mr. Carpenter was one of many speakers at the National Conference on
International Education to urge the formulation of strategies to
promote global education and to correct what is widely perceived as a
crucial deficiency in student's education.

The conference, attended by more than 350 educators, was sponored
jointly by the International Council on Education for Teaching (icet)
and the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education.

"American elementary and secondary [school] teachers are ignorant
about the global conditions in which we live and the role this country
plays in events throughout the world," said Frank Klassen, executive
director of icet He said that the conference was designed to alert more
educators to the problem so that they can define what those strategies
should be.

The results of a cross-sectional survey of college students,
conducted earlier this year by the Council on Learning, to test the
students' knowledge of world events and foreign-language proficiency,
was cited by speakers in support of their views.

Less than 15 percent of all students participating in the survey
were able to answer two-thirds of the survey questions correctly.
Education majors scored among the lowest of those participating in the
survey, answering on the average about 38 of 101 questions correctly,
according to Robert Black, project director of the survey, called
"Education and the World View."

Mr. Black said the lack of global understanding among college
students in general is the result of the curricula offered by colleges
and universities.

But according to statistics cited by Rose Hayden, executive director
of the National Council on Foreign Language and International Studies,
the problem results from inadequate attention by those who administer
secondary-school programs.

She reported that only one in 20 high-school students studies a
foreign language beyond the second year and that one in five high
schools does not offer a modern-language course as part of the
curriculum.

Leon Clark, director of educational administration for The American
University, cautioned that "knowledge is a very limited indicator" of
student's perceptions. But he said it is indicative of "how much
interest students have in the rest of the world." Mr. Clark said
students should be "submerged in other cultures" and recommended the
use of textbooks written by authors "other than American writers."

"An international dimension to education should permeate our regular
classroom and should not be restricted to secondary teachers,"
according to Mr. Carpenter. He also recommended that college and
university professors gain greater personal experience in
"international cultures."

Vol. 01, Issue 13

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